06 Mar 2025
New research published today reveals that innovative tax and benefits policies could dramatically improve financial security for freelancers in the UK screen industries, potentially reversing a worrying exodus of talent from the sector.
The comprehensive study, Make Freelancing Pay, shows that UK governments could use targeted tax and benefits reforms to deliver substantive improvements in disposable household income for screen freelancers, helping to stem the current talent drain from this vital creative sector.
Film and TV are key to the creative industries’ £124.6 billon to the UK economy, but their success depends directly on a skilled and diverse workforce. A large proportion of this workforce is self-employed or works on project-based contracts, facing high income insecurity and sometimes challenging working conditions.
The research, led by Professor Doris Ruth Eikhof of the University of Glasgow and Dr Hannah Randolph, Fraser of Allander Institute, University of Strathclyde examined how tax and benefits policies akin to those in six other countries could transform freelancers' financial stability in the UK.
Professor Eikhof, Professor of Cultural Economy & Policy at the University of Glasgow’s College of Arts & Humanities said: “We are at a critical crossroads for the UK's globally leading film and TV industries. Since the pandemic, compounded by the production downturn, strikes and cost of living crisis, we’ve seen alarming numbers of skilled freelancers leaving the sector. We need fresh ideas to attract and keep the people that film and TV industries so desperately need. Our research offers concrete solutions that could help retain the diverse talent pool our creative industries depend on. For instance, screen-specific basic income policies or housing support for creative workers could be real game changers.”
Key findings include:
The study used microsimulation modelling based on policies currently in place in Germany, France, South Korea, Spain, Ireland, and Sweden. Researchers modelled outcomes for six representative cases: freelancers on average, high, and low incomes; younger freelancers; disabled freelancers; and freelancers working outside of London—both with and without children.
Currently, screen industry freelancers earn approximately 80% of what workers with equivalent qualifications make in other industries while facing greater income insecurity, work-related stress, and financial pressures. According to research by Bectu and the Film + TV Charity, screen freelancers experience more income insecurity, periodic overwork, work-related stress and financial pressures than workers in permanent employment – all of which drives talent drain from the screen industries.
This project led by British Screen Forum and the Film + TV Charity, and supported with funding and advisory input by Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, BFI, Bectu, Equity, Directors UK and the Production Guild of Great Britain.
Pete Johnson, Chief Executive of British Screen Forum, said: “The pressure of income insecurity has inevitably been felt most acutely by those with the least to fall back on. This has exacerbated existing issues relating to the under-representation of certain groups of people – including disabled people, people from minoritised ethnic communities and people from working-class backgrounds. This report brings hard data to the discussion for the first time. It grounds in evidence a productive debate about how best to ensure that the UK screen sector has the workforce it needs to deliver the growth and social value we all want to see.”
Professor Chris Pearce, Vice-Principal Research & Knowledge Exchange, University of Glasgow, said: “Our university is committed to doing research that helps change the world for the better. Make Freelancing Pay does exactly that: it brings new evidence to the policy debate and puts conversations on a firm, factual footing. I am delighted to see British Screen Forum work with our new spin-out Design Otherwise, to help secure a skilled and diverse workforce for the screen industries.”
Rupert Jones-Lee, Head of Research and Impact at the Film and TV Charity, said: “The Charity’s research leaves us in no doubt that freelancers are among the most vulnerable members of the film, TV and cinema industry workforce. The impact of talent drain could be profound. In an increasingly global marketplace, it makes sense to look internationally for ideas of how we might improve the financial resilience of UK workers. We have welcomed this opportunity to work with a wide variety of stakeholders to help shape this timely and important research. We hope the findings of this report will help inform the debate about how to support freelancers in our sector and beyond.”
Bernard Hay, Head of Policy, Creative Industries Policy and Evidence Centre, said:
"Creative freelancers are a vital part of the screen sector workforce and its economic contribution. We often hear that evidence-based policymaking to support the creative freelance workforce is held back by fragmented, missing or hard-to-access data. As the UK Government considers how job quality might be strengthened to increase economic growth - and widen access to opportunities - this report is a timely addition to the evidence base.
It also raises an important question for policy attention: what role might tax and benefits play in creating sustainable careers for creative freelancers, enabling the screen sector to retain high-value skills and talent in a growing part of the economy? This report provides an important step towards answering that question by drawing on international comparators to show what might be possible here in the UK."
Sara Whybrew, Director of Skills and Workforce Development at the BFI, said: “The BFI is pleased to have supported this research, a vital piece of the information jigsaw that can further help us understand how the UK might better support and retain our freelance workforce.”
Head of Bectu Philippa Childs said: “The skills and talents of UK film and TV workers are the envy of the world – yet far too many have told us they don’t see themselves in the industry in 5 years’ time, driven out by a host of challenges. It’s clear that improved and sustained support for the workforce is badly needed to stem the skills exodus, and we welcome this timely report which scrutinises a number of ways in which the UK government could provide such support.”
Dugald Johnson, Policy Officer at Equity, said: “The government rightly points to the UK screen industry as a shining economic success story. But too often this translates to support only for engagers – such as through tax reliefs – and not the artists and creative workers whose talents underpin the industry’s success. This timely research demonstrates how tax and social security policy which specifically accommodates creative freelancers could better support sustainable careers in the industry.”
Andy Harrower, CEO of Directors UK, said: “78% of screen directors feel their income is unstable, according to our own research. Make Freelancing Pay furthers the argument that there is an urgent need to support creative freelancers in earning a stable living. Importantly, it offers real world ideas for how those in power could use tax and benefits policies to make significant impact to the creators struggling to sustain a viable career.”
